The Storyteller
by Shesbeenlying
Summary: So you've come to hear the story, like many before you have, and I always knew you would...sit down my dear, this will be all night. But by the end you will know. Just like you always have. The tragedy that haunts us all.
1. Day

_The Storyteller_

**Summary:** "So you've come to hear the story, like many before you have, and I always knew you would...sit down my dear, this will be all night. But by the end you will know. Just like you always have. The tragedy that haunts each of us."

**Rating: M, for later chapters.**

**Disclaimer: **I'm sorry I do not own Star Wars? Do I?Oh wait nope, I don't. Wait? Yep, still don't.

**Author's Note:** This is a kind of interactive story, some surprises, some creativity liberties I'm taking. I think this will go on for awhile, and it's all supposed to take place in one night. I'm fairly very excited about this. Reviews areso very apperciated.Sit down andpull up a chair,The storyteller will be in shortly.

* * *

The afternoon sun swept across the meadow, the white painted clouds graced the light blue behind them, and in the meadow sat a girl. I found myself walking, not sure as of why, or of the task itself, but being drawn nonetheless. All of this was like this, drawn, unsure, and unplanned. I'd never felt it before. 

The girl's face was the thing I was transfixed by most, her movements. She was sitting in the middle of the meadow, in a simple light blue dress. Her hair was long and golden, the sun catching pieces as it hung down her back to her hips.

Her skin was white, and porcelain looking and reaching out I looked at her. I realized then that she was beside me; I'd reached the spot where she sat picking wildflowers. She wasn't fazed, nor did she look at me.

"What's your name?" Kneeling down next to her I said in my softest whisper. Everything was so quiet and beautiful, and a mixture of the girl, the atmosphere, and this place made me want to whisper, as to not hurt the delicateness of it all.

She did not answer me at first and kept going about her task but finally looking up she looked straight at me. She wore a red painted lip and her eyes carried sadness, both hopeful and as if she'd seen far more than a girl of her age should've.

I didn't say anything else, but continued to be mesmerized and stunned. She looked at me straight in the eyes moments later,

"Amidala, my name is Amidala."


	2. Night

"Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon."  
--- _William Shakespeare_

* * *

"Amidala." I breathed. She continued picking, and when she was finished she handed one to me. Beautiful and bold red with tiny droplets of peaceful sky blue splashed across it. I held it, and thanked her but she didn't make anything of it. She acted as if it was perfectly normal that a stranger was sitting with her, watching her work, in this desolate field.

"Do you live here?" I asked and she started to get up slowly.

Her large eyes looked at me and pretty soon we were walking across the meadow. The long stalks of lazy green grass brushing against our legs. I noticed the backdrop against the meadow itself as we passed through it all, thin looking waterfalls, which at one time must have been undoubtedly beautiful but now looked weak and drained. Their time had come and go.

"I live here with Mother Narratore." She answered simply. Never turning to look at me.

"Have you always lived here?"

"She took me in from my parents when I was very young. She said when it fell, like she knew it would, I would be part of the rebirth of the Old Republic."

I didn't even realize the questions I was asking her. Now I was almost desperate. I wanted more, knowledge, something in me wanted to learn.

"Do you ever see your parents anymore?"

She looked at me straight in the eyes. "No, they were killed by the Empire when the city was taken over. Dark days they were, very dark." Her eyes got sad and she looked at the ground again. Pausing for a moment, it was the only time I saw her stray her mind from her task.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. Because I was, truly sorry.

We arrived at a crumbling house, overgrown with vines by time, statues disfigured with time lining the balcony. It held a hidden beauty, and looked over a sparkling lake, green mountains in the distant barely touching fading pink sky.

Dusk was spreading and the sunlight gave an orange glow.

The whole place was overgrown completely, and appeared to once have been a beautiful lake house. But that wasn't what struck me. It was the atmosphere that did. It again changed violently, from beautifully sad, to dark, and passionate, hidden and fierce.

The walls almost whispered, as if drawing me into certain parts of the house, whispering dark secrets. It was becoming blatantly obvious something had happened here.

It startled me at first, I almost jumped and looked quickly to the girl to see if she had noticed it too, but she continued on, holding her basket heading into the house that she must have called home. She turned to me as I was caught up in the feelings this place was feeding me.

"You mustn't feel so much, she already knows your coming." Stopping in the middle of the balcony she looked at me. The orange dusk was starting to fade black, and through the edges of the mountain outlines stars started to appear.

Something tingled through my body as I looked at the stars. Something was happening. I wasn't sure of what but I knew some strand of my fate, past or present, was tangled in this night. The girl looked back at me and the rising white moon caught her skin. The mixture of the battling dusk and night caught her skin and she looked ghostly. Her eyes caught and she looked at me deeply.

"Wait here." She said finally touching my hand. "Stand there and don't move. I will inform her, though she already knows, that you're here." She smiled then at me, but for once her childish youth peaked through. She was excited. Giddy, almost. She picked up her gown and walked through an ivy-covered passage into the house. Standing here was giving me chills, here, almost more than anywhere I'd been.

_Something happened here_

It rang in my mind. But this time the feeling wasn't burning, it was achingly beautiful.

I was so caught up in it I almost didn't see the girl appear again, touching my hand in the now white moonlight.

"Come." She whispered. "The storyteller will see you now."


	3. Act I

_"There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that."- Oscar Wilde_

Walking down the dark hallway light flickered and danced against the stone walls of the old lake home. My heart pounded in my chest, and during these heavy seconds a distant forever filled screaming rang in my ears. I followed, my eyes on the girl, her blonde hair flickering in the illuminated orange light. It felt as if the sounds that were filling my ears, lead straight into the glowing room at the end of the hall. Emotions still pounding me, my eyes transfixed on as the girl as she turned around and gave me a slight smile. Filled with innocence.

Complete and utter innocence. Her blue dress seemed to still carry the outside balcony's moonlight, silvery and full. But what was distracting me more where the words. That started to weave in and out. Distant and never clear. The screams. The words. Just muffled sounds, wordless emotions, and blurry faces that didn't add up. I stopped. She was staring at me.

Her large blue eyes peering, waiting, her fair small hand pointing forward, she looked at me. We had stopped walking, and had reached a small room. There was fire burning in the kept up old fireplace, and moonlight drifting in through the overgrown vines dancing in patterns along the leather fainting couch. But that wasn't important. Even in my drunken and surreal state I knew that much. What my eyes went to first, was the old woman. Her face looking down, she had been reading large leather bound book. Like the girl, she did not look at me first. But when she did, it was then I knew I couldn't look away or turn back.

Her face was worn, aged, her hair a fading brown hung loose silvery white streaks running through. She had once been some kind of beautiful. But it was her eyes. Her eyes I could not describe to you or anyone, even now. There were no words to them. Except for that what thoughts first floated into my mind when she looked through me straight on. Haunted.

Traced by time and secrets looked to be inscribed into the very freckles of those indescribable eyes.

"So you've come." She spoke in a smooth motherly tone. The kind of voice you wanted to listen to. One you wanted to hear. One that held something important to say. One that burns into your stomach a feeling of knowing they possess a far greater knowledge than you know you may ever will. "You've come to hear the story, like many before you have, and I always knew you would...sit down my dear, this will be all night. But by the end you will know. Just like you always have. The tragedy that haunts us all."

With that she motioned for me to sit. I did as I was told and half in an effort to cater to the dizziness that surged through my body. Caught on this strange night, I was doing anything but thinking. The girl sat near the fire, and near the old woman. Her blue dress sprawled out around her. She looked up eagerly at the Old Woman, her large blue eyes looked as they could barely contain the anticipation. She waited in such anticipation as I sat dizzily, for a promised something I had no idea I was about to receive.

She studied me with the eyes. And began to speak in leathery words again.

"I wasn't sure you'd come this soon. But then again, time brings the unexpected. This I've known by now. Destiny, time, fate." Her hands clasped and even they looked to be knowing. Knowing of something. Of everything.

"Time has passed and filtered a lot, but it is in this place now that we sit this night, you may call me Mother Narratore. I understand you know a lot, but you don't. Fate has always been a tangle, and not many know things I am about to tell you. Few, very few. The fate of two poured into the fate of many. And that was all it took, just the fate of two."

She breathed deeply at this point, her breath was shaky and had the hints of blackened age creeping up in it.

"But before all of this, before the shadows where cast, and before destiny became a mangled web, before the dark days and everything you know that has come to pass, and before I knew anything of this all, is the beginning of where my own circumstance comes into all of this.

I was a young girl. Barely twelve when my mother sent me to capital city of Theed to work. We were country people, farmers, but my mother was determined to see me become anything but a farmer's wife. I could write, and read very well. But I was shy, painfully shy. My mother was promised I was to become a handmaiden, for the young newly elected queen, people been talking veraciously about. I had gotten a glimpse of her as she visited my small village.

The crowds had been overwhelming but I had seen her. She was nothing like I had ever seen before. Soft but intensely determined eyes, small, but filled with a passion you could practically feel radiating over her and the words that flowed with dignified elegance."

Her mouth turned up a small smile at this. Her eyes once again shifting in direction, almost as if reliving through the words filling the moon and fire lit room

"She held these outrageously noble ideals, and soon gained the trust and love of our entire people. As my mother was promised, I was chosen to be one of her handmaidens. We all worked and lived together, living in the palace. I can never quite remember being as lonely as I was there in those first weeks. The other girls were fierce, determined, but I was shy, quiet, and kept to myself. I cried myself to sleep every night wanting badly to return to my family, and the beautiful countryside I longed for and missed. Soon that loneliness shifted to fear, as our world came under attack. Our planet was invaded, and the others buzzed about it.

For as much time we spent around the new queen, not many spoke to her. She carried herself with a demeanor that one dared not approach. Although I knew she and I were of the same age, she seemed almost, otherworldly to me.

Not of age, or humanity. Something else all together. Everyone treated her with a delicate respect, and as handmaidens it was our duty to protect the queen. Late at night as I slept, I was awoken by Rabe, who found it her role to look after me, the smallest and youngest of us all. She looked at me with glistening eyes and said told me, "Malie, The Jedi have come." I knew what that meant. Even as quiet as I was, I was observant and very bright. I knew that it had become too serious for us all, and that danger was surrounding our planet, choking it. I will not lie, I was very afraid. Very afraid.

We stood the next day in a hanger, with two of the Jedi in their heavy cloaks. I had never seen one before, but I was astounded as I peered through my hood. The Trade Federation had invaded Theed and fear spilled through the streets. Numbers rolled in of those left homeless, dead, or wounded and I watched from a far as the majestic queen looked out across the window. Even in her royal attire, lavish robes, and white makeup, she appeared human in that moment. No one saw a single tear run down her cheek. I'll never forget it, because to me she looked like a fallen angel."

Those words hung for a while. Cryptic, floated into my mind. I wasn't sure of why yet. The fire was still burning, pacing itself throughout the night. The girl still fixed, she dared not take her eyes off of the old woman. I realized then, I hadn't either.

"We all were gathered as Sabe took my hand later that same day. "Come, Maile. Don't be scared. You've been chosen to come to Courscant too." She had spoken to me in a whispered voice. It was if she was afraid they'd hear. The enemies of our secret plan to escape to Courscant to speak with the senate. Some handmaidens stayed behind, with sad faces I hoped they would be alright. I hoped we would be all right too as we took off with the two dark cloaked men, dodging the fire of the Trade Federation. I sat inside and looked off into the distance. I had never been in space, I had never been outside our home planet.

I looked longingly at the green and blue sphere as we went into the unknown. I slept too. There wasn't much else to do but wait. Somewhere in between that something went wrong. We had to emergency land on a desert planet in the outer rim. The cloaked Jedi men were flustered, they spoke with each other in questioned voices. I was afraid to be stuck in this strange place.

As I looked out the window it was nothing but endless white sand and blue sky. Nothing in between. I wondered if any people even lived in this kind of place But of course I knew there had to be something living there, the other girls talked of this strange planet. Of how it was risqué and extremely dangerous.

"A planet of sin."

One of them whispered through clenched teeth. The cloaked men walked off as I watched, with a girl, one of us, but she wasn't familiar. I didn't take time to think about it, I was just so happy I wasn't asked to go off with the strange cloaked men into the sandy dunes and blue nothingness.

They didn't come back for days. None of us were sure what to do, it was assured that things were fine, and that they were finding a way to get whatever we needed. I busied myself and tried not to think about what slimy bottom suckers lived in this dreadful place. I wondered about the girl, and if she was one of us, a handmaiden, how come I had never seen her before?

They did return in a hurried rush. Everything happened at once. Panic spread as it was said that a Sith Lord was after the Jedi. Rushed in with them was a boy. A human boy, with sandy blonde hair and the most intense eyes I have ever seen. They were blue, and full of something. Full of something. He wore wrapped desert wear, and didn't speak much. One of the handmaidens told me he had been a slave.

"A slave." Rabe hissed in the dark as the girls talked. Like it was poison, like he was poison rolling off her tongue. He was defective, and bruised, "a slave."

I overhead the Jedi talking about him, the older one to the younger one, apparently he was chosen. Chosen the older one argued, which I did not understand, but what I did understand from the way they talked in harsh whispers that this boy was something special.

I never spoke to him, but I did watch. One night very late I could not sleep. I kept thinking of the dangers that lay ahead, and my stomach churned as I thought of everything. I wandered into the main hallway of the ship to find the girl who was supposed to be a handmaiden who I did not know. He was looking at her with those eyes, like she was something of an angel. Angel.

Fallen Angel.

That's when it clicked in my mind, this girl was the queen herself. It was queen Amidala, Sabe was filling as her decoy. I hid as he slipped her something. She touched his cheek affectionately and wiped away his tears. My heart still pounding from piecing together the puzzle, I sat stunned until she walked past me, fingering a wooden pendant looking ahead into the distance. She noticed me and stopped. She smiled.

"Can you not sleep?"

"No." I whispered.

Re-adjusting her hood she still held the pendant as she spoke. "I pray to the gods once we reach Courscant everything will resolve itself."

I nodded. Then she asked me something that still haunts me to this day. "Are you afraid?"

I was petrified, but if anything we all are never supposed to be afraid.

"No milady, are you?"

She looked hard into the distance for a second, but then straight at me.

"No. I am not afraid. Even if it means sacrificing everything, I am willing to die in the name of what I love."

Leaving me in the cold hallway she smiled and walked on. I wondered if she knew I knew. I wondered if she cared. Her name was Padme, I found out the next morning. The boy, I found out, had sworn her to be an angel. I had known she was the queen. On Courscant we went to the senate and I sat as Padme, Angel, girl and Queen of the Naboo pleaded with the senate. We returned home and fought in battle, thus freeing the Naboo, but what stuck with me most throughout the entire journey was the boy and Padme.

In the battle of Naboo apparently I was told later the older Jedi had been killed by a Sith Lord.

His dying wish was something of a controversy. The boy, the chosen slave boy, was to be a jedi. In the celebration of Naboo was the last time I saw the strange boy with the intense eyes for a long time.

The older man's wish had been granted. He was to be a, Jedi, too. Peace seeped back into the Naboo's lavish rivers and lakes, and hung in it's green trees and never ending skies. But something shifted as I watched the boy look at the queen and smile, something shifted in my stomach and something churned and I could feel it. I could feel destiny shifting."


End file.
